Development of propulsion system for water trash collector / Raudah Nordin and Norhisyam Jenal

Nowadays, the river is highly exposed to pollution where garbage and chemicals are dumped into the river by irresponsible people and industries. One way of preventing this problem is using water trash collectors to help clean up floating garbage such as plastic waste along the river, lake, and ocean. Due to the low amount of study done on water trash collectors in the nation, there is a need for an automated trash collector to help solve this problem. The objective of this project is to design and develop an electrical propulsion system for a water trash collector. The project is a part of a three-part project to develop an automated water trash collector. The propulsion system was designed using computer-aided design (CAD) software. The manufacturing processes involved in the fabrication process were cutting, drilling, soldering, and assembling. The water wheel was fabricated out of PVC and there were six blades attached to the wheel. The wheel is spun using a DC motor powered by a 12V battery supply. The propulsion system should be capable of spinning the water wheel at a speed of 5.08 rad/s in water. This configuration is expected to provide enough force to propel the water trash collector forward during operation.